Promise of a Lifetime
by Morphus
Summary: How will the end of the war affect the love lives of the Animorphs couples? If Rachel had survived, that is. First Rachel and Tobias, then Jake and Cassie. Kindly read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Thought-speak is indicated in italics. Hope you like this, and please review!**

A week had passed since the final battle.

Seven days that had passed in a flurry of tearful family reunions, explanations, celebrations, memorials for those who had died bravely in battle, and, in general, a surge of affection and gratitude from the world at large. And there would be more to come. Award ceremonies, knighthoods and ladyships were all on the cards, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

But, of course, it was not all fun and games. The war had had its impact on every one of the Animorphs. They were no longer the same kids as before. Nightmares of their worst missions still tainted their dreams at night. The faces of those who were gone forever, because they had not managed to save them, visited their subconscious minds from time to time.

But it was nice to be able to not think of fighting anymore. To know that they would no longer be haunted by the now-familiar feeling of sheer terror. But they had hardly had time to think about all that in the past week. It had just been so…eventful.

But now, it was night. And night was the time to think. Night was when there was silence. No reporters calling you every other minute to request for interviews, no talk show hosts asking you difficult questions, nothing. Just you and your thoughts.

Rachel lay on her bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, mind buzzing. She was thinking about what lay ahead for her in life. What was the next step? Now that she was a famous "saviour of the world", the possibilities were practically limitless. She and the other Animorphs had already been flooded with offers to endorse a staggering number of products, half of which they did not know the function of. And that was just the beginning. Offers from every college in this city and the next, starring roles in television shows, heck, there was even a movie in the making!

But what of her personal life? Now that she no longer had to lie to her family (at least not for purposes directly linked to saving the world), they were closer than ever. With the whole saving-the-world thing out of the way, she had more time for herself and others. At least, she would after the media's interest in them died down. She would have more time for shopping. Eating. Sleeping. Hanging out. Her life post-war was almost perfect. Almost.

Tap tap.

Ah. There was the piece that was missing from the perfect portrait of her life. Rachel smiled, and tore her eyes away from the ceiling.

She held out her finger as the one red-tailed hawk that mattered more to her than anything flew in through her open window. She felt the soft scratching of his talons on her skin, then a familiar flutter in her heart as he landed carefully on his favourite perch: her finger.

"Hey…" she whispered, the warmth in her smile enough to send hot blood pumping through his body.

_Hey Rach…_ he replied, a grin in his voice. Rachel was sitting up on her bed in an old t-shirt and track pants, the covers shrouding her body from waist below. Her hair gleamed in the shaft of moonlight that flooded in from the window. Even though it was mussed up at the back from lying on the pillow, she looked perfect.

_Up for some late-night flying? It's a beautiful night._

In reply, she focused on the bald eagle DNA inside her, and began to change.

Tobias had been right; it was a beautiful night. A gentle wind constantly blew, caressing their feathers and making their flight smooth and untiring. The pair of lovebirds flew side by side in a comfortable silence, each enjoying the beauty of the world stretched out underneath them and the tingle they felt whenever one wingtip brushed against the other.

They reached an open meadow which stretched out for miles. At Tobias's signal, they began to dive towards the ground. She shouted in glee from the rush of plummeting towards the ground at a million miles per hour. But amidst the adrenaline rush, there was curiosity. They didn't usually land during their night flights. Normally, they would just fly around for a bit, enjoy the scenery and company and then head back to Rachel's home.

Perhaps Tobias was up for something special tonight. She grinned inwardly. She was, too. There was magic in the air tonight.

**Author's Note: It gets loads more interesting after this, I promise. :) **


	2. Chapter 2

He landed on the grass first, and began to morph. Hair grew out from his feathered head, and his talons thickened to form the muscular front legs of a racehorse. Puzzled but intrigued, Rachel followed suit with her own racehorse morph.

_Come on, Rachel. Follow me!_ cried Tobias.

Together, they galloped at top speed across the meadow, two racehorses running under the moonlight.

_Yeeeeee-hah! _

_Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooo!_

The ecstatic feeling of freedom combined with the thrill of speed washed over them. They were in their element, and everything felt right. It did not matter that the original form of one of them was a hawk and the other, a human. Nothing mattered but each other as they ran and ran and ran with their powerful legs, hooves flying, heart racing.

When they reached the end of the meadow, Tobias changed into a hawk again and took to the sky. Rachel's eyes shone with excitement. She could not wait to find out what else Tobias had in store for her, for them, on this magical night.

They flew until they were right above an open sea.

_Wanna try a mid-air morph?_ challenged Tobias.

_Let's do it! _she accepted, still high on the ecstasy she had felt galloping across the meadow.

_Okay…just trust me and demorph, alright? NOW!_

As Rachel felt the changes begin, Tobias was already halfway through a dolphin morph. He fell at an alarming speed, and finally hit the water with a resounding splash. He quickly positioned himself so that he would catch Rachel on his back when she fell from the sky, fully human.

"Wahooo! Bullseye!" shouted Rachel as she landed on Tobias's smooth dolphin back.

_Hold on tight, and take a deep breath! _he instructed.

Then, he dived into the water, careful not to go deep, and leaped into the air!

The rush she had felt as a racehorse just under an hour ago was nothing compared to this. Her heart sang with happiness, and she knew that she would cling on to the memory of this glorious, glorious moment forever and ever. The hellish nightmares that still haunted her dreams would be replaced by this scene from paradise.

"I love you, Tobias…" Even though she had never felt this happy in her entire life, she was not saying it just because he had given her this beautiful moment. She meant it. Every word of it. And to seal the promise, she kissed his back tenderly.

_I love you too, Rachel. _he replied sincerely.

Tobias did a few more leaps, and headed for shore. Then, he demorphed and began to assume his human form.

"Why did you suddenly decide to do all this?" Rachel hugged him tightly and asked in awe. Her mind kept replaying every single minute of the past couple of hours they had spent together.

"Because…" he stopped and took a deep breath, as if to calm his nerves.

"This is the way I feel about you. And I wanted to show it somehow."

In reply, Rachel placed her lips over his, and kissed him until they were breathless. It was a kiss that said exactly what he wanted to hear: You didn't have to. That's the way I feel about you too.

"Rachel, I know you may have reservations about us…about our future together because of my…condition. But I want you to know that I want to be with you forever. I don't mind losing my morphing ability. I could become a human _nothlit_. Just so we can spend all of eternity together…It would be worth it, Rachel.

I know we are still very young, but we have gone through a lot together. Much more than anyone our age would have gone through. Every mission we did held a chance of me losing you. There was no stability in our lives. But now, there is.

And so I was wondering…"

An image appeared in Rachel's mind. An image similar in origin to the one Elfangor had projected in all of their minds that fateful day it all started at the construction site.

The image showed her and Tobias. He was in his human form, down on one knee, holding out a little red box to her.

Her heart was racing. This was all so unexpected!

The image faded, and she saw that Tobias had gone down on one knee. And in his hand, he held a little red box. In it sat a diamond ring.

"Rachel, will you marry me?"


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel's mind was working overtime. This was such a surprise! They had talked about marriage many times before, but she had never expected him to propose so soon!

And she was so touched by his words and actions tonight that tears were beginning to run down her cheeks.

She knew that there was no one else in this world she wanted to marry except Tobias. But she wasn't sure about letting him become a _nothlit_ again for her…

How could she deny him the pleasures of morphing? Of flying across the sky, diving towards the ground at alarming speeds, happily swimming in the way that only a dolphin can? How could she deny him all these pleasures when he had just shown her how wonderful they could make someone feel?

No, she decided, she could not let him give up all this for her.

"There's no one else I would marry except you, Tobias. But you don't have to become a _nothlit _again. We can work it out. I can't let you give up your morphing ability."

"But I don't want our children to have a part-time hawk as a father…"

"Our children will be more than happy and proud to know that their parents are part of the original Animorphs, Tobias. They will understand that you are this way because you made a huge sacrifice for the greater good.", she said gently, "And anyway, the two-hour limit will only make our marriage more exciting!"

Tobias smiled, and nodded.

"How long did you take to plan this?" Rachel asked, curiosity catching up with her again.

"Right after the final battle I realized that I never want to spend the rest of my life without you by my side. So I've been planning this ever since. I learnt that mind-projecting image thing from Ax…it was hard! Took a lot of practice. But I knew it would be worth it. I hid the ring on this shore so that I didn't have to find a way to carry it with me." Tobias said, a hint of pride in his voice.

"Oh, Tobias…" she said, emotion and awe clouding her voice.

They kissed again, and then he tenderly slid the ring into her finger. She smiled a smile of pure happiness. They both knew they would never forget this moment for the rest of their lives.

They lay in the soft sand under the star-filled sky, and spent another precious hour of the magical night in each other's arms.

**Author's Note: Next chapter: Jake and Cassie!**


	4. Chapter 4

The phone rang.

Cassie looked up from the keyboard. She had been typing a report for school on the computer. Yep, after winning a long and laborious battle and saving the world from alien parasites, the Animorphs still had to go to school. Though the teachers and fellow students regarded them with a totally different attitude nowadays.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Cass. Can I borrow your history notes? I was spacing out during today's lesson." It was Jake. He sounded a lot happier nowadays. And with good reason-no more strategizing, no more life-and-death decisions to make on a daily basis. But she knew that like her, he was still haunted by guilt. The decisions he'd had to make for the final battle had left many dead. The effects of leading and fighting in a war were permanent.

"Sure!" she answered. She was always happy to see him, and they had grown closer ever since the end of the war had removed the barriers and uncertainties from their relationship.

"Great! Meet you at the barn in ten minutes, then."

Five minutes later, she called out to her parents that she was going out to the barn for "a little while".

"Okay! And don't hurry home!" her parents trilled happily in reply.

Huh? Perhaps the pride that their daughter had helped to save the world hadn't worn off yet and was manifesting itself in a - her thoughts ground to a halt when she opened the door and saw what was on the floor.

A trail of deep red rose petals lay on the ground outside her door. She smiled to herself. She had a good idea who was behind this.

She followed the trail. It led to the barn. She opened the door. Jake had even showered each animal cage with rose petals, and the floor was full of the stuff. The only space in the barn that wasn't covered by petals was occupied by four furry paws.

Homer looked at Cassie with a goofy doggy smile on his face, and wagged his tail furiously. He was holding a piece of folded paper in his mouth.

"Why are you doing here, Homer? Are you injured or sick?" teased Cassie. She bent down, scratched his head and removed the letter from his mouth.

She unfolded the letter. A sea of words written in Jake's large and straight handwriting stared back at her.

"Dear Cassie,

I've been wanting to say all this for the longest time, but never got a chance to because of the war and all.

I think you know how I feel about you, Cassie. And I think you feel the same way. I love you.

It took a few near-death experiences during our missions to make me realize that the feelings I have for you amount to more than just a crush. We may be young, but I'm sure you'll agree with me that we have been through a lot. And I am very sure of my feelings for you.

I want to spend every day of my life with you. I want you to be my partner for all of eternity. There's no one else I'd rather grow old with.

Will you be my missus?

Love,

Jake"

Cassie clapped a hand to her mouth. This was so sudden!

She looked up from the letter. Homer was gone, and in its place was Jake in his morphing suit.

Down on one knee. With a ring in his hand and a big goofy grin on his face that wouldn't have looked out of place on Homer.

"So how about it, Cassie? Will you marry me?" he asked solemnly.

She pretended to think about it, but her heart already held the answer, and it was struggling to come out of her mouth.

"Yes!" she screamed in glee, tears of joy running down her face. She kissed the top of his head.

He slid the ring into her finger. It was a perfect fit. And then, he twirled her round and round until she was dizzy with happiness.

When he put her down again, she saw that the door to the barn was open. Her parents were standing outside, tears in their eyes and big, matching soppy grins on their faces.

"Oh. I forgot to tell you. I roped in your parents for help as well. They let me into the barn and made sure you stayed in your room until all the…arrangements were in place." grinned Jake.

She ran over and hugged her parents. "Go on, celebrate your engagement with supper or something." they urged.

And so they left, hand in hand, already lost in a world of their own.

By the time Cassie got home, it was near midnight. She was changing into her pyjamas, a lovesick grin still on her face, when the phone rang. "Who could it be at this hour?" she wondered.

She picked up the receiver. A very excited voice was at the other end of the line.

"Guess what, Cass! Tobias proposed to me!"

"What! Oh my god, Rachel! Jake just proposed to me too!"

The two best friends spent the rest of the night telling each other about how their boyfriends had proposed, and planning their double wedding. Just like old times. Well, almost.

**Author's Note: Next chapter-the wedding! How could I end off without describing the wedding! **


	5. Chapter 5

It was two weeks after Tobias and Jake had popped the question. The wedding was only a month away, and both couples were up to their necks in wedding preparation work.

"All these guest lists and menus and flower arrangements are driving me crazy!" Rachel complained.

"Tell me about it. At least **your** fiancé doesn't also have school to contend with, and has more time to help you." Cassie sighed.

"He has to hunt, so it's about the same, really. Anyway, weddings were always more about the bride. The groom always takes a hands-off approach." Rachel grumbled. "Oh, crap! I have to call the wedding dress shop **now** and remind them to remove the lace and frills from my dress! Talk to you later, Cass."

"Okay. Oh, that reminds me. I have to call our wedding planner now and tell her that we can't have salmon on the menu. Uncle Gerald is allergic to them. Good luck! Bye."

After calling the wedding dress shop, Rachel sat down with her mom to look at the guest list.

"Mom, who on earth is Mrs. Greynola and why are we inviting her?"

"Oh, don't you remember Mrs. Greynola? She was your babysitter when you were two years old. I met her the other day at the supermarket and she still remembers you! So I decided that we **have** to invite her."

"Oh alright then." Rachel mumbled sulkily. Pause. "I never knew I had an aunt named Georgia."

"Well, she's not really your aunt, actually. She's your, er…let me think…grandaunt's sister-in-law. Yeah, that's it."

"Have we met before?"

"Er, no, not really. But your grandmother insisted on inviting her." Rachel made a face. "Oh come on, sweetheart. She'll probably not turn up anyway."

Rachel sighed. "I never knew weddings were so much work."

"Wait till you start on the seating plan." laughed Naomi.

"There's a **seating plan**! Oh, great." Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Tobias only has about ten guests on the list. Are you sure he doesn't want to invite more people?" asked Naomi.

"Ax is the only one he wanted to invite. The rest are only there because of the simple fact that they didn't get round to starving him to death, and he felt he should be grateful for that."

"Oh. Nice boy, Tobias."

"That's why I'm marrying him, Mom."

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The day had finally arrived, and everyone was a bundle of pre-wedding nerves. Naomi was doing Rachel's hair, and Jordan was her makeup artist for the day. But Rachel kept biting her lip because she was nervous, and smudging her lipstick. Jordan was running out of patience.

"Rachel! Can you find some other way to display your nervousness? I can't do your makeup properly if you keep smudging your lipstick every five seconds." Jordan complained.

"Sorry…" she replied absent-mindedly. Her mind was preoccupied with images of what could go wrong. What if Tobias was late, or forgot the ring? Or worse, what if he decided that he didn't want to marry her after all? What if Ax accidentally moved his tail blade and hacked off someone's head? Argh! This was driving her bananas.

"Rachel, stop worrying! It's all going to be fine…" Naomi promised, attempting to ease Rachel's panic.

"No, it's not!" Rachel whined. "Ax is going to accidentally chop off someone's head in the middle of our vows. I just know it!" Whining was so not her thing, but she didn't care. She was nervous and worried and sleep-deprived. She certainly had a right to whine!

Naomi and Jordan looked at each other, and burst into a fit of giggles. Soon, Rachel saw the hilarity of what she had just said and joined in, too.

Their laughter was interrupted when Sara suddenly burst into the room, and shouted "The limo's here!"

Hurriedly, they did the finishing touches on her hair and make-up, and scurried downstairs. Rachel's heart was pumping at twice its usual speed.

The first thing Cassie said when Rachel slid in beside her was "I'm so nervous!".

"Me too!"

Rachel reached for the mini-fridge in the limousine and pulled out a bottle of whisky.

"I guess that's what this is for." she said, and poured herself a glass. But before she could drink it, Cassie snatched it from her and gulped the whole thing down in one mouthful.

Rachel stared in shock. Her best friend had never been a drinker. Rachel poured herself another glass and sipped it slowly. Cassie reached for the bottle, fully intending to refill her glass, but Rachel stopped her.

"Let's not get too drunk to say our vows. One glass is enough." Rachel advised. Cassie hugged her. "I'm so glad I have you to go through this with!"

Rachel hugged her back. "Me too!"

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"Alright, this is it." thought Rachel. She and Cassie were standing at the other end of the aisle. They could see Jake and Tobias fidgeting nervously on the other side. Ax stood beside Tobias in his full Andalite war-prince glory, but the brides noticed that he had donned a cute black bowtie to suit the occasion. Marco winked at them from his position beside Jake, looking immaculate and (though neither of them would ever say it to his face) handsome in his snazzy black tux.

Tobias's usually unruly hair had been bullied into a neat side parting, and though he still had the air of awkwardness around him that was usually present whenever he was in human morph, he looked gorgeous and charming in his sponsored Ralph Lauren suit.

Jake had never looked more serious nor grown-up in his smart tuxedo (also sponsored), which seemed to have been tailor-made for his lanky body (which, in fact, it had. By Paul Smith himself.) and fitted it perfectly. His whole look exuded the "perfect husband" aura.

Rachel's designer dress hugged her model-esque figure, resulting in a stunningly sexy look. Cassie's (also designer) number made her look like Beyonce Knowles.

As their fathers walked them down the seemingly infinite aisle, Rachel suddenly noticed that there were a lot of people in attendance who were furiously taking photos or scribbling in notebooks. In fact, it seemed like a third of the attendees were from the press. Well, their sponsors certainly wouldn't regret jumping at the chance to make their wedding dresses and suits. They would get enough publicity to last them for the next hundred years. Or, at least, until Christmas.

When they finally made it to the other side of the aisle, the two best friends collectively took a deep breath. They had rehearsed this a million times. They could do it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. It's been a busy week.**

"I, Rachel Berenson, take you, Tobias Fangor, to be my husband, my partner in life and my one true love." she began nervously.

"I will-" she stopped short. Dang! What was the next line? She racked her brains, trying to remember the rest of the vow.

The friends, relatives and members of the press in attendance were beginning to notice the silence.

"Shit!" Rachel swore inwardly.

And then, words began to sound inside her head.

_I believe the next sentence is: I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before._

Ax! Thank goodness for his wonderful memory and the almanac!

Immediately, she repeated after Ax. "I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before."

Ax continued to guide her through the rest of the vow.

"I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live." finished Rachel in a voice brimming with confidence. She smiled gratefully at Ax, who beamed back with his stalk eyes.

Then, Tobias said his vow nervously but accurately. As he slid the ring into Rachel's finger and kissed her tenderly, she felt the last piece of the portrait fall into place.

Her life was now perfect.

She stood in silence, gazing lovingly at Tobias and enjoying the perfection of this moment as they were joined in holy matrimony.

She listened as Jake and Cassie said their vows smoothly and solemnly.

Only then could Rachel let out a long sigh of relief. The vows were over, and there had been no nasty incidents involving Ax's tail blade. Rachel began to relax. She needn't have been so paranoid about everything. Their wedding was going to progress just as they had planned from here on…

At the far end of the huge ballroom in the classy six-star hotel where the wedding was being held, an entire table full of guests was laughing uproariously.

Feeling at peace with the world, Rachel decided that she should check out what the joke of the day was. She sure could use a laugh after all that nervousness.

The guests seemed to laugh harder the closer she approached the table. Some of them had noticed that she was coming over, and the sight of her seemed to invoke fresh rounds of chortles.

Feeling some of the nervousness settle back into her stomach, accompanied with a dash of annoyance, she quickened her steps.

An elderly old lady was showing her tablemates a series of very old photos. She noticed Rachel's arrival, and smiled serenely.

"Ah, there you are, Rachel. I was just showing these wonderful people some pictures of you when you were two years old."

Rachel's mind was reeling in shock. Who was this old woman and how had she gotten hold of her toddler photos?

"Don't you remember me? I'm Mrs. Greynola, your babysitter when you were just a wee toddler." The old woman asked with a smile.

Realisation dawned on Rachel's face. Oh, yes. The babysitter who her mom had invited.

"Can I have a look?" Rachel asked sweetly. Something told her that those photos were not the most flattering ones ever taken of her.

And sure enough, they weren't. She stared in shock at the first one. A chubby, almost bald toddler was looking at the camera with a deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face. She was holding a shiny (and very tacky) crocodile-skin handbag. Clearly, she had been caught in the act while trying out the shiny, tacky handbag look.

"There was never any doubt that you would grow up to be a fashionable young lady, Rachel." Mrs. Greynola said kindly while Rachel's face grew red with embarrassment.

The rest of the photos weren't flattering, either. One was of her wearing a pair of kiddy sunglasses with a big cheesy grin on her face, and another depicted a toddler in the middle of a disastrous attempt at eating her own dinner. Her face and clothes were smeared with a disgusting combination of semi-solid food and saliva.

After looking through the photos, Rachel smiled weakly at Mrs. Greynola and the rest of the table, made some excuse about having to "see to" the other guests, and hotfooted it as far away from the table as her stiletto-ed feet could carry her.

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Meanwhile, Cassie was facing a mini-crisis of her own. She stood helplessly as her uncle Gerald clutched his stomach in pain. His face was red and he seemed out of breath. Jake had already called an ambulance and there was nothing to do but stay by his side and mutter comforting words until it arrived as his wife screamed at her and Jake.

Rachel approached Uncle Gerald's table, and asked "What happened?"

"Uncle Gerald's having an allergic reaction to the salmon." Cassie replied anxiously.

"Didn't you call our wedding planner and tell her we can't have salmon on the menu?" whispered Rachel.

"I did! But there was a small amount of it in one of the dishes that none of us knew about!" hissed Cassie under her breath.

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Fifteen minutes later the ambulance arrived and took Uncle Gerald away. The paramedics said that he would be fine as he had only ingested a small amount of salmon.

Everyone heaved a heavy sigh of relief when the ambulance had left. Cassie was still smarting from guilt and the harsh words that Mrs. Uncle Gerald had said to her. Rachel patted her shoulder sympathetically, and silently wished that nothing more would go wrong.

"Er-hem." Rachel and Cassie looked up in dismay, both expecting it to be another crisis and thinking "What fresh hell-?".

But it was only Jake. He was up on stage, holding a microphone in his hand and looking like he didn't quite know what to do with it. Tobias stood beside him a short distance away, also on stage and holding a mike. He looked as if he didn't know what to do with himself.

"We, uh-Jake and I, that is-have decided to give our brides a little surprise. We hope you like it, and we offer our apologies in advance in case you don't."

Both the brides gasped in unison. They hadn't expected this! Surely their new husbands weren't going to embarrass themselves already? They had only been married for less than an hour! Plenty more time to embarrass themselves in the years to come.

"They won't embarrass themselves. It wouldn't be their style." Cassie told Rachel uncertainly.

"Yes. Let's trust them." Rachel replied, her voice unsure.

How could they trust two nervous bridegrooms who had never touched a microphone not to make a fool of themselves on stage?


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Glad you're still here. Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's the last. Longer fics next time, I promise.**

Disclaimer: The lyrics for "The Way to your Heart" (by Hear'say) and "When You Say Nothing At All" (by Ronan Keating) do not belong to me.

Music played.

"_I can see the beginning_," Jake began, eyes locked on Cassie, voice pleasantly deep.

"_And I don't see the end_." Tobias continued, smiling the shy smile that still lit fireworks in Rachel's heart.

Rachel and Cassie proceeded to hopelessly melt into a puddle of affection for their husbands.

"_Wanna hold you and never let go, oh no  
For as long as we're giving  
And we never pretend  
I believe in the future untold_

_We'll be stronger together  
Than we would be apart  
I can feel you inside my heart_

_Every day, every night  
Fill my shadows with light  
When I feel all alone  
Your heart is my home  
Every night, every day (every day)  
You show me the way, to love  
Show me the way to your love_

_Baby now that I've found you  
Realise I was lost  
Didn't know love could treat me this way  
Maybe what it comes down to  
When it matters the most  
Is to find joy in every day_

_We could sink to the bottom  
We could climb to the top  
'Cos together we'll never give up_

_Every day, every night  
Fill my shadows with light  
When I feel all alone  
Your heart is my home (your heart is my home)  
Every night, every day  
You show me the way, to love  
Show me the way to your love  
(Show me the way to your love)_

_Doesn't matter if we're far away  
Got each other and that's all I ever need to know  
Someone to call my own  
We'll be together  
Finally, we're meant to be_

_Every day, every night (every night)  
Fill my shadows, shadows with light (ooooh)  
Every night and every day (every day)  
You show me the way to your love (every day)_

_Every day, every night  
Fill my shadows with light  
When I feel all alone  
Your heart is my home (your heart is my home)  
Every night, every day  
You show me the way to love  
Show me the way to your love  
(You show me the way to your love)  
Show me the way to your love. "_

As the song drew to a close, the guests stood up in unison and gave the two bridegrooms a standing ovation.

And then, after Tobias had nipped into the restroom for a quick demorph and remorph, it was time for their first dance as couples.

Rachel's face cracked into a small smile as Tobias came to the dance floor, half-running in his haste. The first few bars of "When You Say Nothing at All" played.

Tobias pulled her to him. She placed her arms around his neck. The rest of the room blurred as they entered their own world. A world of two. Eyes on each other, slow smile playing on lips as they encased themselves in a bubble of love. No need for spoken words.

Her eyes shone, teasing. "You sing well.", they said. A brief tightening of his arms round her. "How could I not, when empowered by your love?" it said. Something he would not, and could never have said with his lips. Tobias was romantic that way. He was shy and awkward in his human form, but with him, speech and facial expressions weren't necessary to convey his heart's desire. His gestures and the look in his eyes said it all.

"_You say it best_

_When you say nothing at all."_

As the closing bars of the song played, someone switched on the microphone.

"And now, a little surprise for our newlyweds!" announced their wedding planner, Mary-Ann, gleefully.

Rachel's body stiffened at the word "surprise". All the "surprises" so far had not been pleasant. Tobias rubbed her shoulder tenderly. "It's okay…"

The curtains on the side of the room where the newlyweds stood swung open with a flourish. A breathtaking view of the night sky had been hidden behind it.

A round of astonished gasps escaped everyone's lips as the sky lit up with showers of sparks in crimson, orange, and blue.

These fireworks were something special. Some of the individual sparks spun round and round like wheels, and others shot across the sky like shooting stars. Some changed colours after they exploded in the sky. It was a breathtaking sight.

Everyone watched, entranced. Twenty minutes later, there was a grand finale as a series of fireworks formed the words:

Rachel & Tobias

Cassie & Jake

Forever

The newlyweds laughed. It was like something lovelorn teenagers in the past would carve on trees.

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They were back at the hotel room after the wedding reception. Tired out from the events of the day (and being anxious half the time), they fell into bed and gave each other a soft goodnight kiss on the lips. Rachel smiled as she drifted off to dreamland, Tobias's arms securely around her. She had never felt more blessed. Her life was **perfect**.

Tobias waited until Rachel's breathing became slow and peaceful. Then, he gently removed his arms from around her and began to demorph. It would be tiring, but he was prepared to do this every night from now on. He would love her as a hawk and as a human.

Morph completed, he scooped up the ring in his beak and placed it on the bedside table. He stared at the words carved inside the ring.

"I love you".

His promise of a lifetime.

THE END


End file.
